diff --git a/windows/welcome/src/SilverOS.Welcome.Core/Apps/AppInstaller.cs b/windows/welcome/src/SilverOS.Welcome.Core/Apps/AppInstaller.cs
index f35b8e0..2a11f2a 100644
--- a/windows/welcome/src/SilverOS.Welcome.Core/Apps/AppInstaller.cs
+++ b/windows/welcome/src/SilverOS.Welcome.Core/Apps/AppInstaller.cs
@@ -79,13 +79,17 @@ public sealed class AppInstaller(IProcessRunner runner, string appsDir) : IAppIn
         Log($"winget probe (PATH): exit={p1.ExitCode} out={Snip(p1.StdOut)}");
         if (p1.ExitCode == 0) return "winget";
 
-        // 2) Provision App Installer via the bundled bootstrap (or registered package), then re-probe.
+        // 2) Provision App Installer, then re-probe. Run the bootstrap SCRIPT FILE directly
+        //    (it checks for winget and installs it online if absent). Invoking the .ps1 file
+        //    avoids an inline -Command (a prior inline if/else had an unbalanced-brace parse bug
+        //    from a non-interpolated string, so the bootstrap never actually ran).
         progress.Report(new("Preparing app installer", 68));
         var bootstrap = Path.Combine(appsDir, "bootstrap-winget.ps1");
-        var b = await TryRunAsync("powershell.exe",
-            $"-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command \"if (Test-Path '{bootstrap}') {{ & '{bootstrap}' }} else {{ " +
-            "Add-AppxPackage -RegisterByFamilyName -MainPackage Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe -EA SilentlyContinue }}\"",
-            ct);
+        var b = File.Exists(bootstrap)
+            ? await TryRunAsync("powershell.exe", $"-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File \"{bootstrap}\"", ct)
+            : await TryRunAsync("powershell.exe",
+                "-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command \"Add-AppxPackage -RegisterByFamilyName -MainPackage Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe -EA SilentlyContinue\"",
+                ct);
         Log($"bootstrap-winget: exit={b.ExitCode} out={Snip(b.StdOut)} err={Snip(b.StdErr)}");
         var p2 = await TryRunAsync("winget", "--version", ct);
         Log($"winget probe (post-bootstrap): exit={p2.ExitCode} out={Snip(p2.StdOut)}");